The Oscars Are Adding a New Award for 'Popular Films,' Whatever That Means-The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced it will add an award for “outstanding achievement in popular film.” starting in 2019.- Films in the new category will still be eligible for consideration as Best Picture.- They hope the award celebrates “broad-based consideration of excellence in all films.”- Other changes which may or may nit be worth discussing- Select categories will be announced curing commercial breaks in an attempt to stay on time, with the winning moments edited and aired later in the broadcast.- Starting in 2020 the awards will happen earlier.

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Roku's platform drives quarterly revenue beat, shares jump- Roku launched its free ad-supported streaming video channel on the Web and Samsung smart TVs, so you can watch it even if you don't have a Roku device. The company plans to roll it out for PCs, phones and tablets too. And Roku updated the nav on its own devices to add a new section called featured free, which lets you see and click to watch free content regardless of channel.. Variety previously reported Roku is planning to launch its own subscription channels market similar to Amazon's add-on subscriptions for Prime Video. In its earnings report Roku reported a rise in average revenue per user of 48%. It also reported a $526 million profit vs. a $15.5 million loss for the same time last year.

Paul Rudd will play dual roles in a new Netflix comedy series- Netflix announced Paul Rudd will play two roles in an 8-episode series called Living with Yourself. Rudd plays a man who decides to take a treatment that makes you a better person. He discovers the treatment works by replacing you with an improved version.

Jeffrey Katzenberg’s ‘NewTV’ Startup Closes $1 Billion, All Major Studios Among Investors- There are few things that established media giants agree on. But two of them are 1. That somebody needs to make bite-sized videos to compete with the likes of YouTube and 2. Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman are the ones to do it. That's why Disney, 21st Century Fox, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Viacom, WarnerMedia , Lionsgate, MGM, ITV, Entertainment One, and Alibaba have all teamed up to give NewTV $1 billion in seed funding. NewTV plans to launch by the end of 2019, with a premium lineup of original, short-form series around 10 minutes each. The service will have two subscription tiers: an advertising-free plan and an “advertising-light” option, according to Whitman. The company will license programming and won’t own or produce any shows itself. Yes friends, the idea behind Vessel is back!

NBC Universal might reward you for streaming videos- The Information says NBC Universal is considering launching a streaming service that pays you in gift certificates to watch shows. Watch Back would supposedly let you watch single episodes of NBC and Bravo shows as well as some news clips in order to drum up interest in the shows. It might also play shows from other networks.

Netflix Original Content Has Grown By 88% This Year, But Old TV Still Rules the Remote- The LA Times figures Netflix released 88% more original programming so far this year than in the same span of 2017. Research firm 7Park Data found that more than 80% of Netflix streams were for licensed content back in Q1 2017. Ted Sarandos has argued that older TV shows get higher volume simply because of the depth of their back catalog of episodes.

Chris Pine and Chris Hemsworth 'Star Trek 4' Future In Doubt as Talks Fall Through- The Hollywood Reporter says Chris Pine and Chris Hemsworth have not committed to the next Star Trek movie claiming, or probably their agents claiming, that Paramount doesn't want to stick to existing deals. Paramount wants to keep the budget down. It apparently argues that Star Trek isn't like Marvel or Star Wars, when it comes to budgets. The movie is not being put on hold.

Cinemark CEO credits MoviePass for Movie Club's growing success- Mark Zoradi, the CEO of Cinemark, told Deadline that MoviePass has "helped create awareness of subscription moviegoing," Movie Club lets you watch one movie for $9 a month at Cinemark theaters with food discounts, guest ticket bonuses and no convenience fees. It has 350,000 subscribers. And if you don't see a movie in a given month the credit is still good for up to 6 months.

Dispatches from the FrontIn response to the story about CBS adding local news to CBS All Access, Dave in Waco wrote in to say he hasn't watched local news "in over ten years." He says, "It's not because I don't like the folks doing the news, several of the people on both sides of the cameras are among my friends, I just can't justify wasting the time on what is mostly totally inconsequential to me."

- Dave

After Brian talked about liking the Apple TV he used at Tom's house, Tim wrote in to say he does NOT like the Apple TV remote. He says every time he presses the button for voice control he just gives up before it does what he wants. And he said, "the trackpad is the worst control for a device I've ever experienced. I'm always flying past what I want to select, or struggling to get it to not jump to something other than the movement I was doing."

- Tim

Mel says, "I signed up for DirecTVnow for $10 a month for 3 months. I can honestly say im very impressed. Very little buffering issues.

I also think its really not about price for cord cutting but its more about the no contract the ease to sign up, change packages and little to no equipment. I liked how i signed up for HBO with just one click, no customer service rep to try and sell me more plans. Again very impressed. Dont know if ill keep after deal but i can tell you im most likely never go back to traditional cable with boxes and contracts. Never say never but most likely not.

- Mel

Hi Tom and Brian,

I can't believe I've been your boss for 4 years now! All the hard work that you guys put into the show its worth every penny in my book. You guys have talked throughout the years of sites to help find what movie/show is playing on what service (canistreamit, justwatched, etc). Currently what are you guys using to see if content is available to stream and which service? Are you using one of these sites above or are you using the Roku or Apple search and forgoing these type of websites?

Keep up the great work and I hope you will stay on board as my employee for years to come!